Coffee and Critique Writers' Group Take Ten Interviews

It's hard to believe the Coffee and Critique writers' group has been going for seven years.

When I founded the group in 2007, along with Lou Turner, we wanted it to be open to writers of all levels, with the motto that critiques would be "candid, but kind."

Each week we have about 10-12 enthusiastic and supportive writer show up, and last year we published our first anthology. We also have encouraged writers to submit to publications -- and all have achieved success!

On our Coffee and Critique blog you can find updates about our group. One popular series is the "Take Ten" interview feature with the our members.

Interviews began last May. Doyle Suit was first, followed by the late Nick Nixon, then Bill Mueller, Alice Muschany, and Lou Turner.

Last week it was my turn to answer interview questions.

This year we will continue the tradition, with one member who has contributed to our anthology being featured each month.

Check back often to the Coffee and Critique blog to find out about some of our members.

Contest Announcement/Call for Submissions: Uncertain Promise, a Literary Anthology

The editors of Compass Flower Press, an imprint of AKA-Publishing in Columbia, MO, are sponsoring a contest and seeking submissions for a literary anthology to be published this fall.

Full disclosure: I am a board member of AKA Publishing

Here is some basic information about the call out. For complete guidelines, visit the AKA-Publishing website:

* Fiction and creative nonfiction submissions only (no poetry)

* Word limit: 3,000 per entry (sections from larger works will be accepted)

* First place $1,000

* Second place $500

* Third place $250

* No previously published work

* Submissions are read and evaluated anonymously by two editorial boards

* Deadline: May 10, 2014 NOTE: Deadline extended until May 25, 2014
 

* Planned publication date: October 2014

* Working title/theme: Uncertain Promise. Examples of uncertain promise: an unexpected outcome (joy, satisfaction, renewal, despair, emotional growth, etc.) from an otherwise routine or mundane circumstance; an unspoken commitment from a friend or lover falls through due to misunderstanding or unforeseen happening; a career or future crashes—or ascends—depending on the outcome of a single event. These are the editor's ideas, with encouragement for those submitting to "use your imagination and please interpret broadly."
* Submission does not guarantee acceptance

* Each published contributor receives a free copy of the anthology

*Non-refundable entry fees:

*Electronic submissions $18 (US$) per entry (paid on website)

 or 

*Mailed submissions $15 (US$) per entry (paid by check or on website) 

Entry form for the 2014 Anthology/Contest may be downloaded at AKA-Publishing.com and must be completed and accompany each entry.  

Or by snail mail: 

AKA-Publishing / Compass Flower Press
315 Bernadette Dr, Ste 3

Columbia, Missouri 65203

JUDGE: Von Pittman

For complete guidelines, including detailed official submission requirements, or for questions, visit the AKA website or e-mail: compassflowerpress@gmail.com 

Good luck if you enter!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day: My Writing Process Blog Chain

Cead Mile Failte! (That means "A Hundred Thousand Welcomes!" in Gaelic.)

I’m honored on this Saint Patrick’s Day that Margo Dill has invited me to be part of a blog chain to discuss my writing process.

Margo is a full-time mom and writer, as well as a creative writing teacher and an editor. Her latest YA book, “Caught Between Two Curses,”* will be published tomorrow.

Here are my answers to Margo’s questions:

1. What am I working on?

I always seem to have several projects going on at once, which is probably why it takes so long to complete anything. Right now—well after I finish working on income taxes—my focus is on completing a thriller I started in November during National Novel Writing Month. I finished the challenge with just over 52,000 words of a manuscript, titled "Framed in Black," which will end up being around 80,000 words. I put it aside over the holidays, but I didn’t stop thinking and planning. While my manuscript simmered I decided to make some major changes and have begun rewrites. So far, I’ve rewritten the first two chapters. 

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

It’s a thriller with spiritual overtones. The main character is female; a twenty-five-year-old English teacher living in the Midwest. The setting is in Missouri and in the Bavarian State of Germany.

3. Why do I write what I do?

In the past my focus was on short stories and personal essays. I’ve always wanted to complete a novel, so last year I decided to give it a try.

4. How does your writing process work?

I’m a write-when-I-can type of writer. The mornings work best for me. I scratch down ideas in notebooks. My first drafts are messy hand-written affairs. For my novel I scratched out a rough outline. The act of writing things down before typing them up helps me clear my thoughts so when I type the basics have already taken shape.

5. The last step in this process is to invite two other authors to participate in the blog chain.

I hope that my writing friends and blogging buddies, Mary Horner and Sioux Roslawski, who both are writers and teachers, will continue this blog chain.

Mary Horner is a teacher and writer who blogs at WritRTeachR about all things editorial, including writing, publishing, authors and books, and author of "Strengthen your Nonfiction Writing."

Sioux blogs on Sioux’s Page about writing, dogs, grown-up children, menopause, the joy of a marvelous book, classroom teaching in general, and specifically, the teaching of writing.

Thanks, Margo, for inviting me to participate in the blog chain. 

And "Adh mAr ort!" May you have the luck of the Irish with your new book, "Caught Between Two Curses."* 

* In my original post I had the wrong first word of Margo's book title.

Polishing Your Prose: Practical Editing and Revision Tips

Last Sunday I gave a workshop on "Polishing Your Prose: Practical Editing and Revision Tips" to about 25 members of the Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers' Guild. 

Thank you, Lori and the CCMWG board, for inviting me to come speak. Also, thanks, Eva, for taking photos.

I began the workshop by defining the basic stages of writing as: prewriting, writing, rewriting, editing, and proofreading. 
My focus for the workshop was on rewriting and editing. Here are some highlights of what I covered:

* Writing is a process of discovery. 

* During prewriting and writing, the focus is on the writer.  

* This is when writers brainstorm and come up with ideas and get their ideas down on paper.

* Tip: Organize your notes, write without editing, and save everything.

* "Write about what interests you." That was Daniel Woodrell's suggestion during a book talk I attended last month at the St. Charles Community College.

* Revision is the process of re-vision; to see again by taking a fresh look at what you've written. (More about clarity of vision below.)

* Rewriting, editing, and proofreading are part of the revision process.

* During revision, editing, and proofreading, the focus is on the reader.

* In an interview, the late Elmore Leonard said, "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."

* In On Writing, Steven King recommended: "Write with the door closed; rewrite with the door open."

* Other revision and editing tips:

Don't do final edits on the computer screen
Print out a copy
Read the copy out loud
Read it backwards to catch mistakes
Always give your work a title (more on this below)
Don't give too much information too soon
Use vivid writing and specific, concrete language
Make good use of white space
Avoid lengthy paragraphs
Put statements in a positive form
Eliminate needless words
Place emphatic words at the end of the sentence
Place yourself in the background
Write in a way that comes naturally
Avoid foreign language
Always keep the reader in mind

At the end of the workshop, participants completed an exercise to edit sentences and eliminate needless words. They also took a for-fun mini-quiz. To emphasize the importance of titles, I gave them the original title of ten famous novels and asked them to guess the novels' better known titles. The CCMWG writers know their stuff--they got almost all ten right.

Here are a few of the before-and-after titles:
Atticus was changed to To Kill a Mockingbird
First Impressions became Pride and Prejudice
The Last Man in Europe is better known as 1984

When the topic of clear vision and focus comes to mind, I think about how eagles take a long view then zoom in and focus. 

How timely that on Monday, the day after my talk, my grandson spotted an eagle soaring above our place in Osage County, along the Gasconade River. 

I grabbed my camera and took this photo to capture the moment. Don't you wish you had his clarity of purpose and clear vision?

How about you? Do you have any revision or editing tips?

I'm In! Not Your Mother's Book . . . On Being a Mom

I'm so excited! I got my official "Congratulations" e-mail last night.

My story, "A Hairy Situation," will be among the 65 stories in Not Your Mother's Book . . . On Being a Mom, from Publishing Syndicate.

Don't you just love the cover--on the left?

The book, edited by Dahlynn McKowen, Ken McKowen, and Dianna Graveman,  is on fast-track for publication.The nationwide release date is April 8, 2014.

What's also exciting is that I've read posts from some of my writing friends on Facebook who also have stories in the anthology!

After I get my contributor copies I will have a giveaway here on my blog, so stay tuned.

Notes from Daniel Woodrell's Talk at St. Charles Community College

Last week, I was among an estimated crowd of 200 people at St. Charles Community College who listened to critically acclaimed Missouri author Daniel Woodrell read from his works and talk about writing.

I arrived early and saved seats for two of my writing pals, Mary Horner and Marcia Gaye.

During the event, Woodrell, who has been described by the LA Times as a “Backcountry Shakespeare,” read passages from Winter’s Bone and The Maid’s Version. He also spoke about the inspiration for his novels and answered questions about writing.

I took pages of notes and a few photos. Here are some highlights:

* Most of his bios don’t mention that he grew up in the Frenchtown section of St. Charles while his father attended night school at Washington University. He moved from the area in 1968 and remarked about how the area has grown since then.

* Because of his mother’s encouragement, he learned to read before going to school and was comfortable with books at a young age.

* He has always had “class” on his mind as a writer. He didn’t want to preach about it, so he decided to write about it fictionally.

* The setting for Winter’s Bone evolved after he and his wife moved to the Missouri Ozarks in 1995. In an early draft, the main character, Ree Dolly, was in her 30s and the younger kids in the story were hers. Once Woodrell realized he was “completely off the rails,” he wiped away pre-conceived ideas and had to go all the way back and start over.

* Strong, formidable women have influenced him his entire life. His mother and grandmother were “terrific gossips and told stories for which there was no proof.”

* The Maid’s Version, which is based on an actual event and is his most autobiographical novel to date, is a finalist in the Fiction category for the LA Times Book Award.

* When writing The Maid’s Version, he stalled until he decided to tell what the maid thought happened. Once he made that decision, he was able to get focused.

* As a beginning writer he wrote pages that didn’t go anywhere. He found he was technically proficient before he “could write with emotional honesty about characters.”

* In his non-writing jobs he was a “terrible employee” and knew writing was what he needed to do to “ride this horse to the end.”

While Mary (at left) and I (below) got our books signed, I asked Woodrell about his next project. 

He told me he is intrigued by the fact that in the past each generation of parents assumed their children would have a better life than they had, but nowadays that’s not necessarily the case. 

He also hinted that a setting for a future book might be a Missouri River town much like St. Charles. 

What a treat it was to learn about the craft of writing from one of the best writers of our time!

For a more detailed account of Woodrell’s talk, hop on over to the Walrus Publishing site to read an article I wrote about the event. 

Please feel free to leave a comment here or there.

Daniel Woodrell to Speak at St. Charles Community College

Great news for local book lovers and writers!

Award-winning Missouri author Daniel Woodrell, who grew up in St. Charles and lives in the Ozarks with his wife Kate Estill, will be speaking at St. Charles Community College this coming Thursday night (Feb 20) at 7 p.m.

According to the SCCC website, Woodrell will comment, read an excerpt from "Winter's Bone," answer questions, and sign copies of his books, which will be available for sale from the SCCC bookstore. (Note to self: Don't forget to bring checkbook.)

With the bad weather over the past few months, I've gone to only one author signing this winter. Not only is the weather improving, but SCCC is just over a mile from my home. I'm going to attend this event, learn about writing from one of the best, and buy some books.